The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a turbomachine component and to a method of assembling a turbomachine component.
In modern turbomachines, such as gas turbine engines, compressed gas and fuel are mixed and combusted within a combustor to produce high temperature fluids. These high temperature fluids are then transported to a turbine for power generation operations. With the turbine, various stages of turbine blades, which are rotatable about a rotor of the turbine, aerodynamically interact with the high temperature fluids to cause the rotor to rotate. Each turbine blade is connected to a platform and is, at times, exposed to high temperatures and pressures that would tend to cause damage to the turbine blades and the platform if not for the presence of cooling circuits in the turbine blades and the platforms. These cooling circuits are configured to continuously provide a supply of coolant to surfaces of the turbine blades and the platforms whereby temperatures thereof can be maintained within safe ranges.
Often, it is desirable to connect the cooling circuit of a given turbine blade with a cooling circuit of a given platform with which the turbine blade is assembled in order to create a continuous cooling circuit and a pathway through which coolant can flow. Previously, such connections have usually involved circumferentially oriented holes that extend into radial stress fields that generate relatively high stress concentrations and limit design configurations for a platform cooling circuit.